Life insurance after a heart attack in New Zealand

Written by Henry Smith · Reviewed by Smiths Insurance & KiwiSaver, licensed Financial Advice Provider (FSP712931) · Updated 2026-10-20 · Reviewed quarterly, when the underlying data is restated.

Financial advice is provided by Craig Smith Business Services Limited, trading as Smiths Insurance & KiwiSaver, a licensed Financial Advice Provider (FSP712931). QuoteHub is a trading name.

You can get life insurance after a heart attack in New Zealand, but the route decides the result. Fully underwritten insurers assess each case and publish no terms. Momentum Life's Quick Life asks no health questions, yet a death related to heart disease in its first two years pays no benefit; Momentum refunds the premiums instead.

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See your price in about a minute, then apply online with Momentum Life. Guaranteed acceptance, no health questions, no medical exams.

Life cover See your price Ages 18–65 · $50k–$300k Funeral cover See your price Ages 40–75 · $3k–$30k

Want more than $300k or have questions? Talk to an adviser

Life cover: Conditions you already have aren't covered for the first 2 years (premiums refunded instead). Suicide isn't covered for the first 2 years, and a few conditions can be excluded permanently.

Funeral cover: Only accidental death is covered for the first 2 years. Total premiums can add up to more than the cover, and it may not meet the whole cost of a funeral.

Insurer: Momentum Life Limited. Financial strength rating B (Fair) from AM Best, affirmed 11 February 2026; B ratings sit in AM Best's 'vulnerable' range. The rating scale is available for inspection at every Momentum Life office in New Zealand. What this means

Already have cover? Keep it. New cover won't pay for a condition you already have in its first 2 years.

Opens Momentum Life's online application; its guidance only covers eligibility. QuoteHub is a Momentum Life partner. Smiths Insurance & KiwiSaver may receive a commission if you buy. General information, not advice.

Life cover after a heart attack comes in two kinds. With a fully underwritten policy, the insurer asks about your history, may request records or tests, and then offers standard terms, a higher price, an exclusion, a wait, or a decline. No NZ insurer we found publishes how it treats a heart attack, so any page that quotes a loading or a waiting time for one is guessing. With guaranteed-acceptance cover such as Momentum Life's Quick Life (ages 18 to 65, $50,000 to $300,000) acceptance is automatic, but for the first 2 years the policy does not pay for a death related to a pre-existing condition, and a heart attack, with the treatment that follows it, is likely to count as one. After 2 years the exclusion ends, apart from any specific condition listed in the policy schedule.

What underwritten insurers do after a heart attack

No insurer has published a rule for heart attacks. What is public is process:

Fidelity Life and Chubb set minimum evidence for each cover amount and age, and a disclosed condition triggers more. Their higher evidence levels add an exercise ECG or a calcium score (Fidelity Life underwriting guide; Chubb underwriting guide).
Partners Life lists heart attacks, strokes and cardiomyopathy among the cardiovascular risk factors that stop its streamlined no-blood-test pathway (RiskinfoNZ, 17 October 2024).
Asteron Life says that with an existing condition it can usually still offer cover by adding a stand-down, raising the premium, or excluding the condition (Asteron Life).

Any of those outcomes is possible; none is promised. Trauma cover is a separate product that pays on a list of defined conditions, which IFSO says covers only specified conditions, for example defined cancers and heart attacks (IFSO: life insurance), so check the definition before assuming a policy would respond to a second event. If you have been turned down, start with what to do after a decline.

What Quick Life does with a prior heart attack

Quick Life's wording says Momentum will not pay for a death, or a terminal illness, in the first 2 years if it is "directly or indirectly related" to a pre-existing condition (Quick Life policy wording, November 2025). The wording defines a pre-existing condition as any illness, condition or symptoms you had in the 2 years before the policy started, including anything you had treatment or advice for, symptoms you noticed even if undiagnosed, or what you would reasonably have been aware of. It also names some health markers: very high blood pressure, cholesterol over 7.0, a BMI over 40 and complications of diabetes.

Many people who have had a heart attack are on medicines and under regular review, which is treatment and advice. So even a heart attack from several years ago can fall inside the 2-year look-back if you are still being treated for it. Momentum decides each claim on its facts, and we cannot tell you how it would treat a particular history.

If a death related to a pre-existing condition happens in the first 24 months and no claim is payable, the wording says premiums are refunded. A few specific conditions can be excluded permanently, and those are listed in the policy schedule, not in the general wording, so read the schedule when it arrives. Momentum's website adds that Quick Life is not available to applicants diagnosed with a terminal illness or in palliative or hospice care (Momentum: Quick Life).

What the first 24 months pay: worked examples

These are invented examples to show the rules, not real claims. In each, the person is 58, had a heart attack 14 months before applying, and still takes heart medicines.

What happens	Quick Life	Funeral Insurance
Dies of a cardiac event in month 10	No benefit; premiums refunded	No benefit; all premiums refunded
Dies in a road accident in month 10	Accidental death is covered	Paid if death occurs within 90 days of the accident (triple the benefit)
Dies of a cancer first found after cover began, month 18	Not caught by the pre-existing-condition rule if the cancer is new and unrelated to the heart attack; Momentum assesses each claim	No benefit in the first 24 months; premiums refunded
Dies of a cardiac event in month 30	Benefit paid, unless a specific condition is permanently excluded in the schedule	Benefit paid (death from any cause after 24 months)

The two policies work differently on purpose. Quick Life excludes a cause (pre-existing conditions) for 2 years. Funeral Insurance excludes every cause except accident for 24 months.

How Momentum Funeral Insurance handles a prior heart attack

Momentum Life's Funeral Insurance is open to New Zealanders aged 40 to 75, asks no health questions and pays a benefit of $3,000 to $30,000 (Funeral Insurance policy wording, 17 August 2023). It has no pre-existing-condition clause. The only early restriction is the 24-month window, in which only an accidental death pays and any other death refunds all premiums for that person. From month 25, death from any cause, including a second heart attack, pays the benefit. Total premiums can exceed the benefit, and the benefit may not cover the whole funeral. See how funeral insurance works and the Funeral Insurance page.

Choosing between the routes

You want more than $300,000 or you are stable and well treated. Ask a licensed adviser to approach underwriting insurers. A healthy person can usually get more cover for less with fully underwritten cover, and an adviser can say whether a heart attack changes that for you.
You are 18 to 65 and want life cover in place now. Quick Life takes applicants aged 18 to 65 with no health questions, but no benefit is paid for a heart-related death inside 2 years. Keep any existing cover running until the new policy has started.
You are 66 to 75 and want to help with funeral costs. Funeral Insurance is open, with the 24-month window above. Quick Life is not open over 65, and neither product accepts new applicants over 75.
You have been declined elsewhere. See the options after a decline and the two-year exclusion.

Momentum Life Limited is rated B (Fair) by A.M. Best, affirmed on 11 February 2026 and in the agency's "Vulnerable" range on Momentum's own table (Momentum: financial strength). The buttons on this page go to Momentum's online quote; QuoteHub is a Momentum Life partner (how we are paid).

Get a quote and apply online today

See your price in about a minute, then apply online with Momentum Life. Guaranteed acceptance, no health questions, no medical exams.

Life cover See your price Ages 18–65 · $50k–$300k Funeral cover See your price Ages 40–75 · $3k–$30k

Want more than $300k or have questions? Talk to an adviser

Funeral cover: Only accidental death is covered for the first 2 years. Total premiums can add up to more than the cover, and it may not meet the whole cost of a funeral.

Already have cover? Keep it. New cover won't pay for a condition you already have in its first 2 years.

Adviser's view

A heart attack makes fully underwritten cover harder to price and nobody can promise you a result. Cover with no health questions is available, but a death from heart disease in its first two years pays nothing and returns your premiums. If your health is stable, ask a licensed adviser to approach underwriting insurers before you settle for it.

Henry Smith, Financial Adviser (FSP1010699). General information, not personalised financial advice.

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Cite this page QuoteHub NZ (2026). Life Insurance After a Heart Attack NZ. www.quotehub.co.nz/guaranteed-acceptance/life-insurance-after-heart-attack-nz. Updated 2026-10-20.